Monster House Does Better in 3D

Well, it certainly worked out well that so many cinemas prepared for Monster House by equipping more of their screens with Real D's 3D technology. Those screens that showed the animated film in 3D outperformed those showing it in plain-old 2D by a whole lot, enough that I bet the film would have claimed the top spot on the box office last week (it was second, behind Pirates of the Caribbean 2) had it been more widely available in 3D. I won't do the math, because it wouldn't be proof of my hypothesis, but I will tell you the figures. The per-screen average for Monster House in 3D last weekend was $15,000, and the per-screen average for Monster House all together (nobody tracks only 2D screens, because there's no company needing that info the way Real D needs it for only the 3D screens) was $6,253. That is 2.5 times less. Okay, fine, I'll humor you: $15,000 per screen at 3,553 screens would equal $53,295,000. So, if every show of Monster House was shown in 3D, it very well could have beaten Pirates.

And even if that math wouldn't have been the reality, the actual facts are enough to show that the new 3D is a monster hit (pun intended, sorry), so Hollywood is probably already looking to embrace the format even more warmly.